Update by News and Information Department of Palaung State Liberation Front / Ta-ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA) | November 18, 2016

  1. Battles taking place in the Ta’ang Region – 17 times in 2012, 65 times in 2013 and 136 times in 2014 – had increased to 219 times in 2015 and 309 times in 2016. The increase was due to (a) More offensives by Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT=Burma Army) and the incursion into the Ta’ang Region and attacks by the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS).

The Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT) Offensive Order of Battle by

  1. Initially, in the Ta’ang Region, the MT had stationed only the garrison units under the North-East Command, the battalion under Kyaukme based Military Operation Command (MOC)-1, the battalion under Thein-ni based MOC-16, one Tactical Command (TAC) under the Bago based Division (Div)-77, one TAC under the Magwe based Div-88 and one TAC under Meik-ti-la based Div-99. In April 2015, the MT started offensives by bringing in as reinforcement, the entire unit of Div-77 and the entire unit of Div-88, and in May the entire unit of Div-99. In March 2016, to reinforce the troops already in the region, the MT brought in the entire unit of Sa-gaing (Ywa-taung) based Div-33, the entire unit of Kalaw based Div-55, the entire unit of Pa-kok-ku based Div-101 and MOC-10 under the North-East Command. With a strength of over 10,000 troops from the 6 full military divisions and 3 MOC, the MT stepped up the offensives. After over three months of offensives against the TNLA, the MT, in June and July, withdrew its divisions, leaving only the Div-33 and Div-99.
  1. Tables showing battles taking place by year, due to offensives by the MT are as follows.

Battles taking place in the year 2015

Sr. Battle Types Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total
1 MT Attacks 5 37 21 9 11 15 5 7 16 14 16 26 182
2 TNL Ambush 2 1 3 1 1 1 9
3 MT   Captured   TNLA   Temp. 1 1 2
Camps
4 TNLA Attacks on MT Camps 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 9
5 MT Air Strikes 3 1 4

 

Battles Taking place in year 2016

Sr. Battle Types Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Total
1 MT Attacks 12 8 15 1 14 10 7 5 14 22 14 122
2 TNLA Ambushes 3 13 2 4 1 1 2 4 1 4 35
3 MT Captured TNLA Temp. Camps 1 1 1 3
4 Attack on MT Camps 1 1 1 1 4
5 MT Air Strikes 2 2 2 1 7
  1. Casualty on the two sides in clashes between TNLA and MT troops.

Casualties in year 2015

Sr. Army Casualties Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total
1 MT Killed 45 142 28 16 28 21 8 3 65 24 21 65 466
Side Wounded 10 45 17 45 37 6 8 14 10 26 12 34 264
2 TNLA Killed 9 1 11 1 5 2 3 5 1 38
Side Wounded 3 2 5 5 6 3 7 1 32

 

Casualties in year 2016

Sr. Army Casualties Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Total
1 MT Killed 59 14 144 3 33 14 5 8 11 44 42 377
Side Wounded 32 10 61 6 24 1 10 2 10 25 21 202
2 TNLA Killed 1 1 2 1 2 6 1 4 2 3 23
Side Wounded 1 3 1 1 1 2 9

Battles with RCSS and Situation

  1. Battles between the RCSS and TNLA troops started in the year 2015. The reason for the war between fellow ethnic forces was due to the fact that as its troops had suffered high casualties in its war against the TNLA, the Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT) uses the ways of setting one ethnic armed resistance force against another, so as to decrease the strength of the resistance forces. After the RCSS/SSA had signed the NCA, the MT had used it for clashes to take place between the two sides by assisting it to send thousands of its troops to intrude into the Ta’ang Region. For that reason, during the period when battles took place between the TNLA and the RCSS troops, battles between the MT and TNLA troops had decreased. Now, as the clashes between the TNLA and RCSS troops have decreased, there is a resurgence in offensives by the MT against the TNLA. Battles between the TNLA and RCSS troops took place 17 times in 2015 and 145 times in 2016.

War Can Become More Intensified

  1. As more offensives were launched against the TNLA starting from the 4th week of October, battles were taking place almost every day. Though the TNLA had tried to evade the Mt troops to avoid battles, they purposely came after the TNLA troops to attack in their operational areas, temporary base camps in the jungles and places where the narcotic drug traffickers were detained. Moreover, the TNLA troops who are travelling about in civilian clothes are being arrested systematically. The MT troops are now targeting also the civilian populations by firing, into the vicinities of the villages and into the villages, heavy weapons from their camps, on the days when there are no battles.
  1. As the MT increased its military strength more in Ta’ang Region by sending in 60 truckloads of more troops into Kutkai and Muse Townships, in the first week of November, and one more battalion of troops in Namtsan Township and has deployed its troops in all the operational areas of the TNLA, the war can become more intensified.

 

News and Information Department
PSLF/TNLA
November 18, 2016

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